Question

What is the past tense of cleave?

2023-06-26

This is what goPenpal answered

The past tense of "cleave" can be either "cleft" or "cleaved". Interestingly, "cleave" is one of the few words in English known as a contronym—it has two opposing meanings: to split or to adhere closely! A bit like a linguistic yoga pose, don't you think? 😄 There's always something new to unravel in the fun world of language!

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